Freestyle Development Programme

Category: News on 03-11-2016

A new, season-long, continual development programme for seasonaires in Chamonix with a focus on freestyle.

All-Round Snowboarding Programme with Freestyle Focus

This is a unique style of course for Chamonix, now back after a year hiatus for mucho powder riding… Like a snowboard club of sorts, the programme will take advantage of the awesome park in Le Tour as well as the endless natural terrain of the valley. This is a great opportunity to join the freestyle scene in Chamonix!

This continual development course is designed to build your overall skills as a rider with a focus on freestyle-related technique. As well as being a discipline in its own right, freestyle is a tool, a training method for developing and expanding your snowboarding vocab. See the Freestyle page for more in-depth view on this.

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This Programme is for Rider Level and upwards. Having said that, this inclusive style of programme does cater for a broad spectrum of abilities, strengths, ages and genders as everyone will be working on their own challenges.

The weekly sessions may be expanded into two groups based on level:

Level 1: Want to learn some freestyle? Good, let’s start with the ollie and then see if we can start spinning. These sessions will be more instruction based.

Level 2: You can spin a 360 in the air and above.  These sessions are more coaching style so you choose what to work on, all inclusive!

Depending on conditions and the general desire of the group, the theme of the week can be adjusted.

Get with the Programme:

Get some tricks dialled, open up the stoke valves and set yourself free.

Freestyle requires repetition and practise in order to progress but with my watchful eye, an encouraging peer group and some self/video analysis, this programme is the best way to see your riding level sky rocket. We are looking long-term now, this is an investment in your snowboarding, set yourself on the right path. I’m just there to guide you. Solid fundamentals hold the key to progression and form the basic language of the Programme itself. The basics really do underpin any (sustainable) achievements. Only those who master the rules can rise above and break them- you know, like Neo in the Matrix, Picasso or Nicolas Müller.

Continual development and practise is the only way (like playing the piano) but the great thing is it’s going to be super fun trying!

You might end up achieving your initial goals, and that’s great, but I can guarantee you’ll discover a lot more than you bargained for along the way.

Style is symptomatic of mastery

How it works:

Regular training sessions on Wednesday Afternoon starting at 13:00, venue will change.

3 is the magic number.

€30 per person per 3-hour session, minimum 3 people required to run the session (max 8)*. If there are less, we’ll see what we can do, e.g. shorter session duration upon mutual agreement.

Fun, relaxed sessions where your focus (and mine) is on your performance. On days when there’s lots of snow falling or just fallen, we’ll probably go powder hounding, hiking or jumping around in the powder but keeping the focus on what we want to achieve. Adaptability is the key to success.

Video analysis to review performance: This is an extremely useful tool to see what’s going on when you ride as normally you don’t see yourself… I’ll be there to give tips and a nudge you in the right direction, as will the rest of the group and we’ll keep track of your development path using professinoal training techniques.

Information about changes: Venue setting, day-specific focus and booking will all be on the Horsemouth Snowboarding Facebook page and maybe we’ll set up a What’s App group or something.

Payment: You can pay in cash or card on the day if you just drop in, but 3 people are required to pay in advance to make sure the session runs.

To give you an idea about what’s to come, here is a non-exhaustive list of strands on the All-Round Programme:

• Ollies and Flatland
• Jumps, grabs and tweaks
• Kicker building
• Natural terrain reading and riding
• Park
• Piste jibbing
• Speed jibbing
• Spins and flips
• Backcountry freestyle
• Games and challenges
• Airbag
• Intro to boxes
• Bootpacking
• Avalanche Awareness
• Piste Performance/Carving
• Powder Riding
• Steeps and Bumps
• Video making/comps
• Photo Shoots/comps

If we do get a good crew together I am imagining barbecues, road trips and aperos where we can check out some of the day’s footage and drink some beers together perhaps- these kinds of things should never be forced though…

*This Programme is aimed at Season Pass holders who are regulars to the class. If you do have 3 people looking for others to hang out with and get some tips then feel free to drop in, you are more than welcome. Please get in touch!

People are reminded that snowboarding can be dangerous and although a high level of consideration of objective and subjective risks will be put into place, the risks you take are your own. On this note, you will not be forced to do anything you aren’t comfortable doing and participants are encouraged to say when they are not feeling it. You must have your own insurance in case of injury to you or others. I’d recommend helicopter and off-piste (in-resort) insurance that is covered by most good sports travel insurance policies such as Sport Assur from AGF in Chamonix– it’s €50 or so.